Fu Yuheng held his chin and pondered. He had thought that he could at least find some clues through Zi Xin, but now she died by coincidence. All the clues were cut off at her point, and it would not be easy to find out the truth in a short period of time. Fu Yuheng was also very troubled. Everyone in the harem was staring at this matter, waiting to see how he would explain to them.
Gazing into the distance, Fu Yuheng's eyes narrowed slightly, with a look of scrutiny. He thought that there must be something fishy about the Second Princess, otherwise he wouldn't be so eager to kill to silence her.
Fu Yuheng thought about it over and over again, but he was still in a dilemma and didn't know what to do. He was so confused that he couldn't make up his mind. In frustration, Fu Yuheng shouted, wanting Sun Ning to give him some advice.
"Sun Ning." Fu Yuheng rubbed his forehead and called Sun Ning in loudly. Sun Ning heard Fu Yuheng's voice from outside and hurriedly ran into the hall, fearing that he would be negligent.
Playing with the beads in her hand, her voice was a little distressed. She looked at the beads in her hand with a frown, and kept fiddling with them to relieve her inner irritability. "Sun Ning, what do you think about Concubine Xian's affairs?"
Sun Ning lowered his head and listened to Fu Yuheng's words, his shrewd eyes fixed on the ground below. After thinking for a moment, a plan came to his mind. He raised his head and looked at Fu Yuheng cautiously, testing Fu Yuheng's attitude.
"Your Majesty, I have a plan, but I don't know whether I should tell you or not."
Fu Yuheng glanced at him and threw the object in his hand at him. He didn't look angry at all, but rather seemed to be venting his anger to Sun Ning.
"If you have something to say, please say it now. You are getting more and more unreasonable than ever before. "
Sun Ning took the item carefully, with a little more smile on his face. It seemed that there had been a lot of things going on in the palace recently, so he had become more open-minded.
"Your Majesty is wise, I dare not play tricks with you. In my humble opinion, now that the clues have been cut off, you might as well put the blame on the maid Zi Xin who died today, and then you can slowly investigate what happened afterwards. This way, you can save the Concubine Xian, and you can have an explanation to everyone. What do you think?"
Fu Yuheng understood what Sun Ning meant. He glanced at him, pondered Sun Ning's words carefully, and nodded thoughtfully. Sun Ning's words were not a bad idea. After all, there was no better way to prove Shen Qingwan's innocence. It would be better to put the blame on this palace maid.
He waved his hand to signal Sun Ning to go down, and thought seriously for a moment. He hesitantly picked up the brush on the table, spread out the bright yellow paper, dipped it in fine ink, and wrote on the paper. The handwriting was vigorous and powerful. Fu Yuheng's calligraphy was not inferior to that of contemporary masters, which made people sigh.
The imperial edict stated that the Second Princess's maid Zi Xin had evil intentions and wanted to murder the princess and her master. Her crimes were extremely heinous and she committed suicide by jumping into a well because she was afraid of being discovered.
Fu Yuheng watched for a while and sighed, as if he relaxed. After all, the case that had troubled him for many days finally had a solution, and he could finally put down the stone in his heart. Fu Yuheng called Sun Ning again and asked him to issue the imperial edict to various palaces to clear Shen Qingwan's charges.
The atmosphere on Shen Qingwan's side was a lot more relaxed because of the child just now. The gossip in the palace these days was enough to drown them. Although she didn't care, it still affected her mood. The servants who followed her were also in low spirits.
The little girl who came was the third princess Fu Lingling. Her mother was Concubine De. This little girl was lively, naughty and cute by nature. She often made Concubine De laugh. Today she was bored, so she slipped away quietly while the palace maids were not noticing. After running away, Fu Lingling was like a bird released from a cage, finally gaining her freedom. She wandered alone in the vast and boundless palace, walking here and running there, very happily. She accidentally came to Shen Qingwan's palace. When she heard the voice of the palace maid, she was scared and slipped away secretly.
The third princess Fu Lingling ran away from Shen Qingwan, but she could not escape the palace maids' relentless search and was brought back to the palace, where she was watched even more closely.
The little girl sat in her bedroom with her chin in her hands, looking bored. She shook her head back and forth, looking at the scenery outside the window in a depressed mood. It was so boring.
Fu Lingling looked at the birds flying freely outside the window and felt very envious. Children are very playful, so Fu Lingling couldn't sit still after sitting alone in the house for a while. She thought about how she had finally escaped, but was caught by them. It was really hateful. The little girl puffed up her cheeks and looked depressed.
Fu Lingling stood up and prepared to push the door open. The palace maid who had finally found the princess was naturally on guard. Concubine De had ordered that the princess not be allowed to run around. If they let the princess go out and Concubine De found out, they would probably be punished. So several people blocked the princess's way and wouldn't let her go out.
"Get up. This princess wants to go out for a walk, isn't it okay?"
The little girl pushed away the palace maid who was blocking her way, looking depressed. She was locked up in the bedroom every day and there was no one to play with her, which was really depressing.
The palace maid knelt on the ground, trying to persuade the Third Princess not to let her go out. Just when she was about to stop her, Concubine De came to see Fu Lingling with cakes. Seeing her making a fuss about going out, she looked displeased and hugged her in her arms.
"Lingling, why are you so naughty again? Didn't your mother tell you not to run around casually? Now something happened in the palace, you should stay calm and don't go out to cause trouble and make your father unhappy."
Fu Lingling stared with her big eyes, blinking them in such a cute way that melted Concubine De's heart. She looked at her mother naively, somewhat confused.
"But Lingling hasn't seen Father for a long time. Didn't Mother say that as long as Lingling doesn't get into trouble, Father will come to see me? Lingling has been very well behaved these past few days, but still hasn't seen Father!"
Fu Lingling's words were like a sharp knife that pierced Defei's heart. She didn't know how to explain to Fu Lingling and could only continue to coax her.
"Lingling, be good. Your father is busy with government affairs, so he didn't come to see you. Lingling, you must be obedient. Your mother brought you your favorite cakes. Come eat with your mother, okay?"
Fu Lingling smiled happily, took hold of Concubine De's sleeve with her little hand, and quickly pulled her into the bedroom. She sat quietly beside Concubine De, looking very well-behaved and lovable.
Defei looked at the well-behaved Fu Lingling, her face full of satisfaction and happiness. She placed the cakes in front of Fu Lingling one by one, picked up some and put them into Fu Lingling's mouth. Fu Lingling opened her mouth and swallowed them. The mother and daughter enjoyed each other's company and were both very happy.